Abstract: Admission control in a wireless communication network considers power and spreading code resources as part of its admission control operations. In an exemplary embodiment, an admission controller admits new users in a manner that balances forward link transmit power and spreading code usage. More generally, network admission control maintains a desired relationship between power and code use as new users are admitted. Such control increases forward link capacity by avoiding premature exhaustion of either power or code resources. Thus, in operation, the admission controller chooses either a power-efficient or a code-efficient configuration for admitting new users, depending on the relative availability of power and code resources. Such power and code resource assessment may consider a particular communication channel, e.g., a CDMA channel, in a particular radio service area, or may consider the relative power/code usage balance among channels in multiple service areas.